Active awareness control for a helmet

ABSTRACT

An active awareness control system and method for a helmet with a rigid shell that spatially divides a shell interior from a shell ambiance includes receiving at least one playback-sound signal, generating in the shell interior from the at least one playback-sound signal playback sound, and receiving and processing at least one ambient-sound signal representative of sound occurring in the shell ambience to detect the at least one desired-sound signal. The generation of the at least one playback sound is put on hold when the at least one desired-sound pattern is detected.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is the U.S. national phase of PCT Application No.PCT/EP2016/052815 filed on Feb. 10, 2016, which claims priority to DEPatent Application No. 102015202703.1 filed on Feb. 13, 2015, thedisclosures of which are incorporated in their entirety by referenceherein.

BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field

The disclosure relates to a system and method (generally referred to asa “system”) for active awareness control in a helmet.

2. Related Art

A motorcyclist's ability to hear while riding is a critical safetyfactor in the modern environment. Unfortunately, a motorcyclist'shearing may be impeded by noise such as engine noise, wind noise andnoise caused by helmet design, among other things. High noise levels,such as those experienced by motorcyclists, may increase fatigue, impairreaction times and impede attention, effectively reducing the safety ofthe motorcyclists and those around him or her. Moreover, high intensitynoise over long periods of time may have long-term consequences on amotorcyclist's hearing ability. At highway speeds, noise levels mayeasily exceed 100 dB(A) even when wearing a traditional helmet. This isparticularly troublesome for daily motorcyclists as well as occupationalmotorcyclists, such as police officers, but also for pilots, militarypersonal, and motor sports enthusiasts who wear a helmet.

To combat the noise, some motorcycle helmets use sound deadeningmaterial around the area of the ears. Other motorcyclists may opt to useearplugs to reduce noise and prevent noise induced hearing loss. Anotherway to reduce noise are built-in active noise cancellation systems. Inall cases, the noise reduction may be too strong in some situations,e.g., may reduce or cancel desired sound, such as, to a certain degree,the motorcyclist's own motorcycle or other vehicles, sirens, horns andother warning signals around him or her. Or, noise reduction may be tooweak for undesired sound in other situations, e.g., when the sound ofthe motorcyclist's own motorcycle or any other noise is too loud. Thesituation can become even more complicated when the motorcyclist listensto music which is, in some situations, desired sound, but which may notbe desired when more important desired sound such as sound created byother vehicles, sirens, horns and other warning signals around themotorcyclist occur.

SUMMARY

An awareness system includes a helmet having a rigid shell that isconfigured to spatially divide a shell interior from a shell ambiance.The system further includes at least one sound channel configured toreceive at least one playback-sound signal and to generate in the shellinterior from the at least one playback-sound signal playback sound, anda signal pattern detection module configured to receive at least onedesired-sound signal representative of at least one desired-soundpattern occurring in the shell ambience and to process the at least oneambient-sound signal representative of sound occurring in the shellambience to detect the at least one desired-sound signal. The at leastone sound channel is further configured to hold on the generation of theat least one playback sound when the at least one desired-sound patternis detected by the signal pattern detection module.

An awareness method for a helmet with a rigid shell that spatiallydivides a shell interior from a shell ambiance includes receiving atleast one playback-sound signal, generating in the shell interior fromthe at least one playback-sound signal playback sound, and receiving andprocessing at least one ambient-sound signal representative of soundoccurring in the shell ambience to detect the at least one desired-soundsignal. The generation of the at least one playback sound is put on holdwhen the at least one desired-sound pattern is detected.

A computer program is configured to perform in connection withappropriate hardware and a helmet with a rigid shell that spatiallydivides a shell interior from a shell ambiance the operations ofreceiving at least one playback-sound signal, generating in the shellinterior from the at least one playback-sound signal playback sound, andreceiving and processing at least one ambient-sound signalrepresentative of sound occurring in the shell ambience to detect the atleast one desired-sound signal. The generation of the at least oneplayback sound is put on hold when the at least one desired-soundpattern is detected.

Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will become,apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the followingfigures and detailed description. It is intended that all suchadditional systems, methods, features and advantages be included withinthis description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protectedby the following claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The system may be better understood with reference to the followingdrawings and description. The components in the figures are notnecessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustratingthe principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, likereferenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout thedifferent views.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a motorcycle helmet with an active noisecontrol system.

FIG. 2 is a signal flow diagram of an exemplary active noise controllerapplicable in the helmet shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a signal flow diagram of one channel of the active noisecontroller shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a signal flow diagram of a first exemplary active noisecontrol processor applicable in the active noise control processor shownin FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a signal flow diagram of a second exemplary active noisecontrol processor applicable in the active noise control processor shownin FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an exemplary microphone loudspeakercombination for use in the helmet as shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a cheek piece for use in the helmet asshown in FIG. 1, the cheek piece including the microphone loudspeakercombination shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a process flow chart illustrating an exemplary active noisecontrol method applicable in the active noise control system shown inFIG. 2.

FIG. 9 is a process flow chart illustrating an exemplary awarenessmethod for a helmet.

FIG. 10 is a process flow chart illustrating automatic noise controlmethod for a helmet.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, all examples shown are related to amotorcyclist riding a motorcycle but are applicable to all other driverswearing a helmet and driving any type of land, water or air vehicles.Noise is referred to herein as any undesired sound. Noise affecting amotorcyclist may have many sources, such as engine noise, road noise,wind noise, and other noise in the vehicle. As the speed of a vehicleincreases, typically the most prominent source of noise is wind noise.Common to all types of noise experienced by a motorcyclist arevibrations that make their way to a motorcyclist's ear. In some cases, ahelmet may increase the perceived amplitude of noise by transmittingvibrations from the environment directly to the motorcyclist's ears. Forexample, as a motorcyclist travels faster, the wind impacting the shellof his or her helmet will in turn create more vibration that themotorcyclist perceives as noise. This effect increases dramatically asspeed increases.

A common helmet may comprise several layers, including a shell, ashock-absorbing layer, and a comfort layer. A helmet's shell is theoutermost layer and is typically made from resilient, water-resistantmaterials such as plastic and fiber composites. The shell spatiallydivides (to some extent) a shell interior from a shell ambiance. Ahelmet's shock-absorbing layer, which is its primary safety layer, maybe made out of a rigid, but shock-absorbing material such as expandablepolystyrene foam. Although not typical, a helmet's fire-proof layer maybe integrated and made of a closed-cell material such as vinyl-nitrile,which is both fire and water resistant. Further, this layer may havesound and thermo-insulating qualities and may be alternatively referredto as an acoustic layer. Finally, a helmet's comfort layer may be madeof a soft material meant to contact with a motorcyclist's skin, such ascotton or other fabric blends as are known in the art. Other layers maybe present as well, and some of the aforementioned layers may be omittedor combined.

Helmets may include ear-cups, which may be molded into the rigidportions of the helmet, such as the foam layer. The ear-cups may bestatic and merely provide space for a motorcyclist's ears and/orloudspeakers, so that a motorcyclist may listen to music or communicateover an electronic communication system. In some cases, the ear-cups maybe mounted to the shell of the helmet so that they can articulate andprovide better comfort to motorcyclists. Ear-cups may be either formedin a rigid material that is vibrationally coupled to the helmet's shell,or the ear-cup is directly connected to the helmet's shell. In bothcases, vibrations from wind and other noise sources are readilytransmitted from the shell of the helmet to the ear-cup and then to themotorcyclist's ears. This vibrational coupling in-turn createsirritating noise for the motorcyclist.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an exemplary motorcycle helmet 100. Thehelmet 100 comprises an outer shell 101, an acoustic layer 102, a foamlayer 103, and a comfort layer 104. The acoustic layer 102 (inconnection with foam layer 103 and/or comfort layer 104) may beconstructed to form a passive noise reduction system. The helmet 100further comprises ear-cups 105 and 106 which are mounted on each innerside of the helmet 100 where the ears of a user will be when the helmet100 is worn by the user. Note that in FIG. 1 only one ear-cup 105 isvisible. However, an identical ear-cup 106, shown in broken lines, ispresent on the opposite side of the helmet 100. The ear-cup 105 is (andso is ear-cup 106) isolated from the shell 101 of the helmet 100 by anisolation mount 107. The isolation mount 107 may be made of a vibrationdampening material. The vibration dampening material may prevent shellvibrations from reaching a user's ear and thus may decrease the user'sperception of those vibrations as noise. Thus, by mounting the ear-cup105 to something other than the shell 101 of the helmet, and decouplingit from rigid materials that easily transmit vibrations, noisetransmitted to the ear-cup 105 may passively be reduced.

Each ear-cup 105, 106 may partly embrace, for example, a loudspeaker108, 109 or other type of sound driver or electro-acoustic transducer ora group of loudspeakers, built into the ear-cup 105, 106. Additionally,the helmet 100 may include one or more acoustic sensors such asmicrophone arrays 110 and 111 with each a multiplicity of, e.g., four,individual microphones which may be arranged in a circle around ear-cups105 and 106 in the shell interior. Disposing a multiplicity ofmicrophones in the vicinity of (e.g., around) the ear cups orloudspeakers allows for acoustically matching different ear positionssuch as with different persons wearing the helmet. The microphone arrays110 and 111 sense noise and actively cancel the noise in conjunctionwith loudspeakers 108 and 109 and audio signal processor 112 at thepositions of the microphone arrays 110 and 111, e.g., in each ear-cup105 and 106. The loudspeakers 108 and 109 and the microphone arrays 110and 111 are connected to an (analog and/or digital) audio signalprocessor 112 that may include an active noise reduction functionality.In this way, the benefits of passive noise reduction (as mentionedfurther above) and active noise reduction may be combined. The audiosignal processor 112 may be partly or completely mounted within theshell 101 (i.e., in the shell interior) and may be vibrationallyisolated from the shell 101 by vibration dampening material.

Alternatively, the audio signal processor 112 is completely disposedoutside the helmet 100 and the loudspeakers 108, 109 and the microphonearrays 110 and 111 are linked via a wired or wireless connection to theaudio signal processor 112. Furthermore, the audio signal processor112—regardless of where it is disposed—may be linked via a wired orwireless connection to an audio signal bus system and/or a data bussystem (both not shown in FIG. 1). The audio signal processor 112 may befurther connected to at least one (further) acoustic or non-acousticsensor such as acceleration sensors 113 and 114 which are mechanicallycoupled to (the inner or outer side of) the shell 101 and may bedisposed at opposite sides of helmet 100. Additionally or alternativelyto the non-acoustic sensors (acceleration sensors 113 and 114), at leastone acoustic sensor, e.g., acoustic sensor 115, may be acousticallycoupled to an external surface of the shell 101 (e.g., directed to theshell ambience).

FIG. 2 is a signal flow chart of the system described above inconnection with the helmet 100 shown in FIG. 1. Microphone arrays 110and 111 provide to the audio signal processor 112 electrical signalsthat represent the sound picked up by the microphone arrays 110 and 111at their respective positions. Acceleration sensors 113 and 114 (and/oracoustic sensor 115) provide to the audio signal processor 112electrical signals that represent the vibrations of the shell 101 pickedup by the acceleration sensors 113 and 114 at their respectivepositions. The audio signal processor 112 processes the signals from themicrophones 110, 111 and acceleration sensors 113, 114, and producessignals therefrom that are supplied to the loudspeakers 108 and 109. Theaudio signal processor 112 may additionally transmit or receive dataand/or audio signals via data bus 201 and/or audio signal bus 202. Forexample, audio signals transmitted via data bus 201 or audio signal bus202 may be used to playback music or speech in the shell interior.

FIG. 3 shows one ANC channel 300 of the audio signal processor 112described above in connection with FIG. 2. The other channel (not shown)may be implemented identically and connected to the respective otherloudspeaker, microphones or acceleration sensor but receives andprovides similar types of signals. ANC channel 300 includes an ANCprocessor 301 which receives a filter input signal from a singlemicrophone, a microphone array or from a combiner 302 connecteddownstream of a multiplicity of microphones or a microphone array. Thecombiner 302 may be a summer that combines (sums up) the signals from amultiplicity, e.g., an array of microphones such as microphone arrays110 and 111 in the arrangement shown in FIG. 1. The combiner 302 may bea plain summer as mentioned above or any other type of combiner, e.g., aweighting and/or filtering summer, multiplexer, (intelligent) switchetc.

Furthermore, ANC processor 301, which may include a fixed filter or anadaptive filter, supplies a filter output signal to loudspeaker 108 (or109). The loudspeaker 108 (or 109), the array of microphones 110 (or111) including the combiner 302 and the ANC processor 301 may form afeedback ANC structure or part of a combined feedforward feedbackstructure, in which the electrical path between the microphone array 110(or 111) and the loudspeaker 108 (or 109) including the ANC processor301 filters the signal from the microphone array 110 (or 111) before itis supplied to the loudspeaker 108 (or 109) so that the sound generatedby the loudspeaker 108 (or 109) and transferred to the microphone array110 (or 111) via an acoustic path between the loudspeaker 108 (or 109)and the microphone array 110 (or 111) reduces or cancels sound fromother sources occurring at the position of the microphone array 110 (or111).

In addition to the noise reducing structure, ANC channel 300 may includea correlator 303 (performing at least one of a cross-correlation orauto-correlation operation) that receives at least one of a signal fromthe acceleration sensor 113 (or 114) and a signal representingmotorcycle characteristics such as the revolutions per minute (rpm) ofits motor. The signal representing motorcycle characteristics may betransmitted via a wire-wired or a wireless data bus 310 and may includeRPM data corresponding to the revolutions per minute (rpm) of the motor.These RPM data may be converted by a motor sound synthesizer 304 into anelectrical sound signal representing the sound signal generated by themotorcycle (e.g., its motor) when operated with a particular rpm.Alternatively, the electrical sound signal representing the acousticsound signal generated by the motor when operated with the particularrpm may be generated by another microphone (not shown) that picks up theoriginal motor sound in close vicinity of the motor, and may betransferred to correlator 303 by way of the data bus 310.

Correlator 303 may cross-correlate the essentially harmonic signal fromthe motor sound synthesizer 304 with a signal from the accelerationsensor 113 (or 114) which is a signal that includes harmonic signalcomponents and non-harmonic components. Alternatively or additionally,an auto-correlation operation may be applied to the signal from sensor113 (or 114), e.g., before performing the cross-correlation operation.The acceleration sensor 113 (or 114) in connection with the outer shellforms not only a vibration sensor but also a kind of microphone thatpicks-up ambient sound in the vicinity of the helmet 100 and soundgenerated by or occurring at the helmet 100. The acceleration sensor 113(or 114) in connection with the outer shell is less sensitive to directwind noise which may cause incorrect measurements of the actual ambientsound when using common microphones.

Correlator 303 outputs signals that are harmonic or correlate with theharmonic motor sound (referred to as correlated components) andnon-harmonic signals or signals that do not correlate with the harmonicmotor sound (referred to as uncorrelated components). The correlatedcomponents correspond to harmonic motor sound contained in the signalfrom the acceleration sensor 113 (or 114). This motor sound componentmay be added in an attenuated and/or filtered manner by a gain/filtermodule 305 to the signal supplied to the loudspeaker 108 (or 109) by ANCprocessor 301 so that it is presented to the user wearing the helmet 100in an audible but pleasant way. The gain/filter module 305 includesdifferent modes of operation which can be controlled by a signal whichallow the user to tune the sound presented to him or her. Optionally,the uncorrelated component of the signal from the acceleration sensor113 (or 114), which includes noise contained in the signal from theacceleration sensor 113 (or 114), may be supplied to ANC processor 301in order to implement a feedforward structure or a combinedfeedback-feedforward structure as detailed further below.

Alternatively or in addition to the signal representing the motor sound,a signal representing other desired harmonic components with specificfrequency characteristics of cars, other motorcycles, horns or sirensmay form the basis for the correlation operation. This signal may begenerated by a specific warning sound synthesizer 306, which may includedifferent modes of operation to address different sound situations suchas varying warning signals in different countries etc. and can be tunedby way of a signal MOD2, which allows the user to select the warningsound he or she wishes to hear. Signal MOD1 allows again tuning thesound presented to the user. Additionally or alternatively, differentcontrol signals may be stored in a memory or transmitted via wired orwireless connection dependent on the position that the helmet iscurrently in. The position may be determined, e.g., by a GlobalPositioning System (GPS) 307 and the position is used to select thedesired harmonic components for a particular position to be extractedfrom the signal provided by the acceleration sensor 113 (or accelerationsensor 114 or microphone 115), e.g. warning signals typical for therespective position, maybe in connection with respective control dataprovided as signal MOD2 by a data memory 309 or via a data bus 308.

Referring to FIG. 4, in a feedback type ANC processor 400, which may beused to form a feedback structure or part of a combined feedforwardfeedback structure in ANC processor 301 in the arrangement shown in FIG.3, a disturbing signal d[n], also referred to as noise signal, istransferred (radiated) to a listening site, e.g., the user's ear, via aprimary path 401. The primary path 401 has a transfer characteristic ofP(z). Additionally, an input signal v[n] is transferred (radiated) froma loudspeaker, such as loudspeaker 108 (or 109), to the listening sitevia a secondary path 402. The secondary path 402 has a transfercharacteristic of S(z). A microphone or an array of microphones, such asmicrophone 110 (or 111), positioned at the listening site, receives thesignals that arise from the loudspeaker 108 (or 109) and the disturbingsignal d[n]. The microphone 110 (or 111) provides a microphone outputsignal y[n] that represents the sum of these received signals. Themicrophone output signal y[n] is supplied as filter input signal u[n] toa feedback ANC filter 403 that outputs to an adder 404 an error signale[n]. The feedback ANC filter 403, which may be an adaptive filter, hasa transfer characteristic of W(z). The adder 404 also receives theattenuated or pre-filtered, correlated signal as input signal x[n] fromcorrelator 303 and provides an output signal v[n] to the loudspeaker 108(or 109). In addition to or instead of the adder 404 a subtractor 405may subtract the input signal x[n] from the microphone output signaly[n] to form the feedback ANC filter input signal u[n]. Thus, thedesired correlated sound may be injected into the feedback loop eithervia adder 404 or subtractor 405 or both adder 404 and subtractor 405.Optionally, the attenuated or pre-filtered, correlated signal forminginput signal x[n] may be filtered by an additional filter 406 with atransfer function H(z), e.g., a low-pass filter characteristic, beforeit is supplied to subtractor 405.

Signals X(z), Y(z), V(z), E(z) and U(z) represent in the spectral domain(z-domain) the (discrete) time domain signals x[n], y[n], v[n], e[n] andu[n], so that the differential equations describing the systemillustrated in FIG. 4 are as follows:Y(z)=S(z)·V(z)=S(z)·(E(z)+X(z)),E(z)=W(z)·U(z)=W(z)·(Y(z)−H(z)·X(z)),and assuming that H(z)≈S(z) then E(z)=W(z)·U(z)≈W(z)·(Y(z)−S(z)·X(z)).

Optionally, a desired signal such as music or speech may be played backwith the ANC processor 400, e.g., by adding, e.g., by way of an adder408, a desired signal m[n] from a source 407 to the correlated signalsto form the input signal x[n]. The desired signal m[n] may be muted byway of a controllable (soft) switch 409 when a signal detector 410detects correlated signals. For example, when a warning signal such ashorn or siren is to be reproduced by the ANC processor 400, the switch409 mutes, i.e., (soft) switches the music (e.g., represented by desiredsignal m[n]) off as long as the warning signal is present.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary feedforward ANC processor 500which employs the filtered-x least mean square (fxLMS) algorithm andwhich may be used as or in ANC processor 301 in FIG. 3. In FIG. 5, theprimary path is again denoted P(z), the secondary (or forward) pathagain S(z), the estimate of the secondary path Ŝ(z), the adaptive filtertransfer function W(z), the input signal x[n], the output from theadaptive filter y[n], the primary noise signal d[n], and the errorsignal e[n].

In the feedforward ANC processor shown in FIG. 5, the correlated signalsfrom correlator 303 and the attenuated or pre-filtered, correlatedsignal from the gain/filter module 305 are summed up by an adder 506 toprovide input signal x[n] which is supplied to an adaptive filter 501and a filter 503. The adaptive filter 501 supplies the signal y[n] tothe loudspeaker 108/109 and has the transfer function W(z) which iscontrolled by a least mean square (LMS) module 502. The LMS module 502receives the error signal from the microphone 110/111 and a signal fromfilter 503. The signal from filter 503 represents the input signal x[n]filtered with a transfer function that is the estimate of the secondarypath Ŝ(z). The time domain signals x[n], y[n], d[n] and e[n] of thesystem in FIG. 5 correspond to the z-domain signals X(z), Y(z), D(z) andE(z). Assuming that the adaptive filter is time invariant, the signalsof the system in FIG. 5 can be written in the z-domain as:E(z)=P(z)·X(z)+S(z)·Y(z)=(P(z)+S(z)·W(z))·X(z)

The goal of the adaptive filter 501, which means transfer function W(z),is to minimize the error E(z) which in an ideal case will equal zeroafter the convergence of transfer function W(z). Hence, setting E(z)=0in the above equation gives the optimal filter as: W(z)=−P(z)/S(z).

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an exemplary microphone loudspeakercombination 601 used in the helmet shown in FIG. 1 instead of the earcups 105 and 106. In contrast to the ear cups 105 and 106, themicrophone loudspeaker combination 601 is directly mounted into theshell without any noise damping encapsulation. The microphoneloudspeaker combination 601 includes an enclosure 602 accommodating aloudspeaker 603. The loudspeaker 603 is disposed in the interior of theenclosure 602 and has a front face that covers an opening 604 in theenclosure 602. On the exterior side of the opening 604, i.e., in frontof the loudspeaker 603, a crosspiece 605 crosses the opening 604. Thecrosspiece 605 supports a single microphone 606 which is directedparallel to area of the opening 604. Instead of a single microphone, anarray of microphones may be used. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of acheek piece 701 for use in the interior of the helmet shown in FIG. 1.The cheek piece 701 may be made from plastic such as EPS and may becovered with soft fabric (not shown). The microphone loudspeakercombination 601 may be press fit into the cheek piece 701 at theposition of the ears of a helmet user without any further dampingmeasures.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary active noise reduction method for ahelmet as can be performed e.g. by the system shown in FIGS. 1-7. Thehelmet has a rigid shell that spatially divides a shell interior from ashell ambiance. In a process 801, at least one desired-sound signalrepresentative of at least one desired sound pattern occurring in theshell ambience is received. In a process 802, generating, based on theat least one desired-sound signal, anti-sound that is configured tointeract with internal sound occurring in the shell interior throughsuperposition. The internal sound comprises first internal soundcomponents and second internal sound components, the first internalsound components not corresponding to the at least one desired soundpattern and the second internal sound components corresponding to the atleast one desired sound pattern. The anti-sound is further configured toattenuate the first internal sound components, and to amplify, notattenuate, or attenuate to a lesser degree than the first internal soundcomponents the second internal sound components.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary awareness method for a helmet with arigid shell that spatially divides a shell interior from a shellambiance. In a procedure 901, at least one playback-sound signal isreceived. In a procedure 902, from the at least one playback-soundsignal playback corresponding sound is generated in the shell interior.A procedure 903 includes receiving and processing at least oneambient-sound signal representative of sound occurring in the shellambience to detect the at least one desired-sound signal. The generationof the at least one playback sound is put on hold when the at least onedesired-sound pattern is detected (procedure 904). The awareness methodcan be performed independent from an active noise reducing system ormethod.

Referring to FIG. 10, an exemplary automatic noise control method for ahelmet with a rigid shell that is configured to spatially divide a shellinterior from a shell ambiance may include generating in connection withat least one loudspeaker disposed in the shell interior anti-sound inthe shell interior based on at least one input signal (procedure 1001).The anti-sound is configured to attenuate sound occurring in the shellinterior through destructive superposition. A procedure 1002 includesproviding the at least one input signal by at least one of: picking upsound in the vicinity of the loudspeaker in the shell interior(sub-procedure 1003); picking up vibrations of the shell (sub-procedure1004); and picking up sound in the vicinity of the shell exterior(sub-procedure 1005).

The helmet, system, method and software described herein allows forattenuating, reducing or cancelling non-harmonic sound such as, forexample, noise generated by wind or rain. However, all or selectedharmonic signals such as, for example, the motorcycle's motor sound,sirens and horns are only reduced to a pleasant degree. Furthermore,music can be muted when warning signals etc. occur to direct themotorcyclist's full attention to the warning signal.

It is noted that all filters shown above can be fixed, controlled oradaptive filters, and can be realized, as all other signal-processingparts in the above examples, in analog or digital hardware or insoftware. The filters can have any structure and can be of any type(e.g., finite impulse response, infinite impulse response) applicable.The numbers of loudspeakers, microphones and ANC channels used areunlimited and these may be arranged in any constellation possible (e.g.,two groups of each four microphones in connection with two ANC channels,two non-acoustic sensors and two loudspeakers, or two groups of each twomicrophones in connection with one ANC channel per microphone, onenon-acoustic sensor and two loudspeakers, etc. The ANC channels may haveany structure that is applicable, e.g., a feedback, feedforward orcombined feedforward-feedback structure. Furthermore, instead of across-correlation operation on the signal from the non-acoustic sensorand the signal representing motor or motorcycle characteristics, across-correlation operation may be applied solely to the signal from thenon-acoustic sensor. Instead of non-acoustic sensors, acoustic sensorsmay be used. Motorcycle helmets as described herein include all types ofhelmets that can be used in a similar way. Furthermore, the system andmethods described above can be used with all types of active noisecontrol systems.

While various embodiments of the invention have been described, it willbe apparent to those of ordinary skilled in the art that many moreembodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of theinvention. In particular, the skilled person will recognize theinterchangeability of various features from different embodiments.Although these techniques and systems have been disclosed in the contextof certain embodiments and examples, it will be understood that thesetechniques and systems may be extended beyond the specifically disclosedembodiments to other embodiments and/or uses and obvious modificationsthereof. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except inlight of the attached claims and their equivalents.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An active awareness control systemcomprising: a helmet having a rigid shell, the shell configured tospatially divide a shell interior from a shell ambiance; at least onesound channel configured to receive at least one playback-sound signaland to generate in the shell interior from the at least oneplayback-sound signal, playback sound; and a signal pattern detectionmodule configured to receive at least one desired-sound signalrepresentative of at least one desired-sound pattern occurring in theshell ambience and to process at least one ambient-sound signalrepresentative of sound occurring in the shell ambience to detect the atleast one desired-sound signal, wherein: the at least one sound channelis further configured to hold on the generation of the playback soundwhen the at least one desired-sound pattern is detected by the signalpattern detection module, the signal pattern detection module furthercomprises at least one auto correlation module configured to receive theat least one ambient-sound signal and to perform an auto correlationoperation on the at least one ambient-sound signal to extract firstcorrelated signal components from the at least one ambient-sound signal;the signal pattern detection module is further configured to detect theat least one desired-sound pattern based on the first correlated signalcomponents, the signal pattern detection module further comprises atleast one cross correlation module configured to: receive at least onedesired-sound reference signal representative of the at least onedesired-sound pattern; receive the at least one ambient-sound signal orfirst correlated signal components of the at least one ambient-soundsignal; and perform a cross correlation operation on the at least onedesired-sound reference signal and on the at least one ambient-soundsignal or the first correlated signal components of the at least oneambient-sound signal to extract second correlated signal components fromthe at least one ambient-sound signal or the first correlated signalcomponents of the at least one ambient-sound signal; and the signalpattern detection module is further configured to detect the at leastone desired-sound pattern based on the second correlated signalcomponents.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one soundchannel is configured to receive and process the at least oneambient-sound signal and generate in the shell interior from theprocessed at least one ambient-sound signal, an amplified desired soundpattern in the shell interior when the at least one desired-soundpattern is detected by the signal pattern detection module.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, further comprising a signal synthesizer that isconfigured to synthesize the at least one desired-sound reference signalrepresentative of the at least one desired-sound pattern dependent onfirst control data provided by a data memory or via a data bus.
 4. Thesystem of claim 3, wherein the signal pattern detection module furthercomprises a filter configured to filter the at least one ambient-soundsignal or the first or second correlated signal components of the atleast one ambient-sound signal with a filter characteristic dependent onsecond control data provided by the data memory or via the data bus. 5.The system of claim 4, wherein the at least one of the first controldata and second control data depend on a location where the helmet islocated.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the signal pattern detectionmodule is operatively coupled to at least one acoustic or non-acousticambient-sound signal sensor that is acoustically or mechanically coupledto the shell, the at least one ambient-sound signal sensor providing theat least one ambient-sound signal.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein theat least one ambient-sound signal sensor is at least one of anacceleration sensor or a microphone attached to or disposed in avicinity of the helmet.
 8. An active awareness control method for ahelmet with a rigid shell that spatially divides a shell interior from ashell ambiance; the method comprising: receiving at least oneplayback-sound signal; generating in the shell interior from the atleast one playback-sound signal, playback sound; and receiving andprocessing at least one ambient-sound signal representative of soundoccurring in the shell ambience to detect at least one desired-soundsignal representative of at least one desired-sound pattern, wherein:the generation of the at least one playback-sound is put on hold whenthe at least one desired-sound pattern is detected, the signal patterndetection further comprises at least one auto correlation procedureconfigured to receive the at least one ambient-sound signal and toperform an auto correlation operation on the at least one ambient-soundsignal to extract first correlated signal components from the at leastone ambient-sound signal; detecting the at least one desired-soundpattern based on first correlated signal components, the signal patterndetection further comprises at least one cross correlation procedureconfigured to: receive at least one desired-sound reference signalrepresentative of the at least one desired-sound pattern; receive the atleast one ambient-sound signal or harmonic signal components of the atleast one ambient-sound signal; and perform a cross correlationoperation on the at least one desired-sound reference signal and on theat least one ambient-sound signal or the harmonic signal components ofthe at least one ambient-sound signal to extract second correlatedsignal components from the at least one ambient-sound signal or thefirst correlated signal components of the at least one ambient-soundsignal; and detecting the at least one desired-sound pattern based onthe second correlated signal components.
 9. The method of claim 8,further comprising processing the at least one ambient-sound signal andgenerating in the shell interior from the processed at least oneambient-sound signal, a processed desired-sound pattern in the shellinterior when the at least one desired-sound pattern is detected. 10.The method of claim 8, further comprising synthesizing the at least onedesired-sound reference signal representative of the at least onedesired-sound pattern dependent on first control data provided by a datamemory or via a data bus.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the signalpattern detection further comprises a filtering procedure configured tofilter the first or second correlated signal components of the at leastone ambient-sound signal with a filter characteristic dependent onsecond control data provided by the data memory or via the data bus. 12.The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one of the first controldata and second control data depend on a location where the helmet islocated.
 13. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least oneambient-sound signal is picked-up with at least one acoustic ornon-acoustic ambient-sound signal sensor that is acoustically ormechanically coupled to the shell.
 14. An active awareness controlsystem comprising: a helmet having a rigid shell, the shell configuredto spatially divide a shell interior from a shell ambiance; at least onesound channel configured to receive at least one playback-sound signaland to generate in the shell interior from the at least oneplayback-sound signal, playback sound; and a signal pattern detectionmodule configured to receive at least one desired-sound signalrepresentative of at least one desired-sound pattern occurring in theshell ambience and to process at least one ambient-sound signalrepresentative of sound occurring in the shell ambience to detect the atleast one desired-sound signal, wherein: the at least one sound channelis further configured to hold on the generation of the playback soundwhen the at least one desired-sound pattern is detected, the signalpattern detection module further comprises at least one auto correlationmodule configured to receive the at least one ambient-sound signal andto perform an auto correlation operation on the at least oneambient-sound signal to extract first correlated signal components fromthe at least one ambient-sound signal; the signal pattern detectionmodule is further configured to detect the at least one desired-soundpattern based on the first correlated signal components, the signalpattern detection module further comprises at least one crosscorrelation module configured to: receive at least one desired-soundreference signal representative of the at least one desired-soundpattern; receive the at least one ambient-sound signal or firstcorrelated signal components of the at least one ambient-sound signal;and perform a cross correlation operation on the at least onedesired-sound reference signal and on the at least one ambient-soundsignal or the first correlated signal components of the at least oneambient-sound signal to extract second correlated signal components fromthe at least one ambient-sound signal or the first correlated signalcomponents of the at least one ambient-sound signal; and the signalpattern detection module is further configured to detect the at leastone desired-sound pattern based on the second correlated signalcomponents.